Lauren Davis

It's not unusual for a supernatural TV show to feature an episode where people's dreams have deadly consequences in the waking world, but in Haven, a nightmare contagion may be part of something far larger. Meanwhile, Jennifer investigates one of Haven's most intriguing residents: herself.

Sometimes when watching Law & Order, I'll notice that one of the guest stars is considerably more famous than the others and immediately they become my prime suspect. That happened this week while I was watching Haven and spotted Kandyse McClure as Carrie, a Haven Herald delivery gal. Obviously, she must be the source of the latest Trouble, which causes people to suffer any bodily harm they experience in their dreams in real life.

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The dream Trouble isn't exactly a novel idea, but it continues this season's trend of really simple, but well-executed Troubles. It's a nice touch that the wounds produced by the dream Troubles are incredibly clean—that a bear mauling includes no tissue from the bear and Dwight's gunshot wound doesn't have an accompanying bullet—and it's weirdly fitting that Nathan's dream is so incredibly trite. Nathan, you are truly the most boring person on the face of the Earth. You spend your days around remarkable horrors, yet your brain can come up with nothing more extraordinary than showing up at school naked, for a test you haven't studied for, with Audrey as the stern and sexy teacher. I suppose naughty Audrey fulfilled someone's fanservice quota.

But what makes this Trouble more distressing than most is that it seems to be contagious. Most of the time, Carrie's Trouble affects Carrie alone. She goes to sleep and suffers any injuries she receives in her dreams. But now everyone who has picked up a copy of the Herald that she touched suffers from the same Trouble—at least until she engages in a bit of lucid dreaming to get her Trouble under control. It seems that a fellow who mugged Carrie a while back turned her into a walking infection—and he and his compatriot have their eyes on Nathan and Audrey. Perhaps they want the Troubles to reach a sufficient tipping point so that Audrey has no choice but to kill Nathan?

The Troubleshooters' ability to contain any future contagion may be hampered now that Duke's Trouble is gone. Wade spent much of this episode doing his vampire Crocker thing, going so far as to lure pretty girls into the woods and bite them and drink blood straight from Jennifer's Troubled neck. So what happens when one Crocker kills another Crocker? Well, it turns out that it ends the Crocker curse, perhaps permanently. After killing Wade to save Jennifer, Duke is no longer a sponge for the Troubles; he's just Duke, and he wants to keep his sudden depowering a secret.

While Duke's family Troubles may have come to an end, but Jennifer is just beginning to learn about hers. Vince and Dave decide to "audition" Jennifer for the Haven Herald by getting her to perform a background check on herself. Of course, they've already decided to give her the Girl Friday gig; they just want to see what falls out when she shakes her broken family tree. Jennifer is adopted, but she's never been able to learn anything about her biological parents. Vince and Dave, however, spot a detail Jennifer wouldn't know to look for: Agent Howard arranged for Jennifer's adoption, which suggests that she—and perhaps her parents' identities—is very significant to Haven. Hopefully, as we get to know more about Jennifer, we'll learn a little bit more about Vince and Dave as well. It'll be nice to see more from the Teagues than Vince's shadowy control over the Guard.